Mac Mini with MESA 7i76E

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23 Aug 2017 09:21 #97911 by bymccoy
Hi Folks,

Been searching to see if anybody has asked the question before but not found anything...

Has anybody tried an Intel Mac Mini running Debian/LinuxCNC?

I've got a couple spare (circa 2009 so not able to run the latest few versions of Mac OS X) which are Core2 Duo. They've got a gigabit port onboard and have built in WiFi (or could use a USB Ethernet port).

Not sure if will have enough grunt, but seems a waste them sitting here doing nothing...

Thanks

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29 Aug 2017 12:52 #98142 by andypugh
Replied by andypugh on topic Mac Mini with MESA 7i76E
Sounds like fun, why not give it a try?

If you can get Linux working (and AFAIK it isn't that hard) then the only other likely problem is whether the network interface is compatible.

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30 Sep 2017 09:33 #99667 by Joco
Replied by Joco on topic Mac Mini with MESA 7i76E
Did this investigation come to a conclusion? A MacMini with ethernet MESA sounds like a nice small little setup.

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01 Oct 2017 19:10 #99744 by bymccoy
Replied by bymccoy on topic Mac Mini with MESA 7i76E
I've been swamped recently, but it's on the todo list. I'd rather not have to buy a couple of embedded PC's if a MacMini will do the job, so is something I'll get to.

Interested if anybody else has had any experiences running on a Mac?

I've tried running LinuxCNC inside VM images (for config development) and had a good experience so far. I've struggled with the GTK UI editor in OS X (there's a native editor that runs well, but had issues loading the LinuxCNC specific libraries).

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01 Oct 2017 20:36 #99748 by Joco
Replied by Joco on topic Mac Mini with MESA 7i76E
I had an older (circa 2009) iMac Core2Duo working on Linux Mint 18.1 with RT kernel and a RIP install of LinuxCNC. Latency tests showed it would have been ok for an ethernet MESA. I didnt pursue it further as I got some cheap Dell Optiplex machines with parallel ports. And at the moment for the wee mill I’m looking at converting the speeds from parallel port will be fine. I then repurposed the iMac to be the shop general use computer.

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26 May 2020 20:55 #169006 by 120volts
Replied by 120volts on topic Mac Mini with MESA 7i76E
just tried with a mac mini i5 5,1 with 2 gig ram... the max jitter for servo thread was 77,021 and base thread was 54,994. needing it to be around 15,000-20,000ms... or even 30,000-50,000 ms... for ok results. this mac mini doesn't seem to be a good candidate for linuxcnc. I wonder if there is a Mac Mini that would be good enough?

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26 May 2020 22:40 #169011 by andypugh
Replied by andypugh on topic Mac Mini with MESA 7i76E

just tried with a mac mini i5 5,1 with 2 gig ram... the max jitter for servo thread was 77,021 and base thread was 54,994. needing it to be around 15,000-20,000ms... or even 30,000-50,000 ms.


If you are using a 7i76E (as in the post title) then you a) Don't need a base thread and b) 77k is perfectly acceptable for the servo thread running a Mesa card.

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26 May 2020 23:10 #169014 by 120volts
Replied by 120volts on topic Mac Mini with MESA 7i76E
Oh! Really! Great! That’s good to know!

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27 May 2020 07:10 #169044 by rodw
Replied by rodw on topic Mac Mini with MESA 7i76E

Oh! Really! Great! That’s good to know!


I'm sure 77k is way better than my PC with 7i76e

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